


Where'd everybody go?

by Want_to_read234



Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Rated teen for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26900311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Want_to_read234/pseuds/Want_to_read234
Summary: After an explosion in an abandoned Hydra base, Peter is yet again stuck under parts of a collapsed building. But he doesn't have to worry right? The Avengers are there with him and should be there soon to get him out.Or they would if they hadn't left without him.Day 8: Abandoned
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: My First Whumptober (2020) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948717
Comments: 7
Kudos: 164
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Where'd everybody go?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thought for a minute I wasn't going to get this published today on the 8th! I've had a migraine today and so my proof-read might not be as good as usual, so apologies for any mistakes!
> 
> I'm also not sure how acknowledging other writers goes, but I got the idea from this fic back in August after reading the first fic in the 'We Forgot Peter' series by inkinmyheartandonthepage . If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. Can be found here: <https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891810>
> 
> If I have done that wrong or anything, please just let me know! I don't want to be stepping on anyones toes...

It was Peter’s first mission with the full Avengers team. Mr Stark had taken him out a few times for patrols or smaller missions. But never with the other Avengers before.

It was supposed to be a small mission.

A quick in and out gathering intel from a recently abandoned Hydra based.

It was Peters first time on the quinjet with the rest of the team. Clint was up front with Natasha in the cockpit. Steve, Sam and Bucky where sitting on the opposite side of the plane to Peter, all huddled together apparently talking strategy. Mr Stark was scrolling on his phone answering SI emails. He had overheard Miss Potts shouting at him earlier for ignoring all his work responsibilities. No one seemed to be paying him any attention, so he just sat quietly scrolling through Tumblr on his phone.

As they got closer, the others all started suiting up and getting ready for action. They had been informed about their roles before they left. Peter was to stick with Mr Stark and together they would work their way through the labs, while the others would split up and search the rest of the base.

Dropping his phone back onto the seat of the quinjet he pulled his mask on and went to join Mr Stark by the hanger door.

“You ready kid?” his mentor turned to give him a once over.

Nodding his head he was quick to reply, “Yeah, Mr Stark. Never been readier.”

Both heads turned towards Captain America, it felt wrong to address him as Steve when he was in the zone, as he spoke, “Right team, just a straightforward intel gathering. I need everyone in and out as quickly as possible. Meet back here in 2 hours and keep your comms open.” Turning to face Mr Stark directly, Steve sent him a glare, “Don’t go wandering off because you decide you got bored.”

Mr Stark scoffed, “Sure thing Cap’ I’ll certainly try not to get bored.”

With that the door opened and they all went their separate ways. Mr Stark and Peter took off towards the labs.

The abandoned Hydra base was creepy. Peter found himself unconsciously shifting closer to Mr Stark as they walked. As they approached the lab, Peter felt his spider sense beginning to hum a warning. Pausing to survey the room for any signs of danger, he couldn’t find any and shrugged assuming it was just from being in a Hydra lab.

Looking up he saw Mr Stark watching him, “Everything alright Underoos?”

“Fine, Mr Stark. My spider sense is warning me of something but I can’t see any cause, so probably just left over from whatever experiments they had been doing in here?”

The Iron Man mask was retracted, displaying Mr Starks concerned face as Peter spoke. “Just keep an eye out and be careful.” Peter watched him survey the lab, “Why don’t you start on that side and I’ll start over here. Don’t touch anything dangerous, or better yet just try not to touch anything at all.”

Peter nodded, “Sure, don’t touch. I can do that.”

Mr Stark levelled him with a glare before turning to start looking over his side of the lab. Shaking his head to clear the warning buzz at the back of his neck, he started to search the lab tables on his side. There were some files left scattered across the tabletops. He could see beakers of various compounds and test tubes left lying around.

Peter heard the others occasionally through the comms. Checking in or telling others that their section was clear. Mr Stark let them know the lab had plenty of data but that they were currently digging through it all to see if anything was of use.

Approaching one of the tables he started to read over the notes left lying on top of it, glancing at the related compounds on the shelves above. If Peter didn’t know it was some evil Hydra scientist that had done all this work he would have said he was impressed. In the right hands, this could lead to a breakthrough in modern medicine. Not that Hydra would ever use it as such. Maybe he could ask Mr Stark to hand the notes over to Dr Cho once they have finished with them. See if she can use them for some good.

As he continued through the notes, his Spidey sense grew from a dull throb to a screaming pain. He spun to face Mr Stark, to see him reaching for a file.

“Mr Stark!” Peter screamed, “Don’t!”

Mr Stark jerked round, his wide eyes locked with Peter’s but it was too late. Peter heard the click of an unseen threat the second before an explosion took out the lab behind Mr Stark.

It felt like the front of Peter’s body was burning from the blast as he was flying through the air. He was distantly aware of being flung through a wall, before landing on his back. His spidey sense gave him enough warning to raise his hands and protect himself from the pieces of wall and ceiling that were falling on top of him.

Coughing through the dust surrounding him, Peter focussed on trying to breath. Flashbacks of homecoming and being trapped under the warehouse kept returning to his mind. Feeling a panic attack coming on, Peter tried to focus on other things.

He could hear a slightly too slow heartbeat not too far away. Given the slightly unusual beat, he was assuming (read: hoping) that is was Mr Starks. He had been closer to the blast, but he also still had his Iron Man armour on at the time which would have offered the man protection.

Given the size of the blast, the others must have heard it and would likely be coming to their location.

That thought reminded Peter about the comm he had been wearing, but that was now only crackling static in his ear.

If he strained his hearing, he could just about make out the rushing footsteps elsewhere in the building. He could hear far off voices but couldn’t focus enough to hear what they were saying.

His arms were beginning to shake with the strain of holding up the pieces of concrete and his breath was coming in short bursts again.

He didn’t need to worry this time though. Mr Stark and the rest of the Avengers knew he was here. They would come and get him out. But being trapped under a building isn’t exactly good.

The panic attack that he had managed to put off by 5 or so minutes reared its ugly head again, and as his breaths came faster and shallower, spots appearing in his vision. Try as he might to calm his breathing, a combination of pain and fear stopped it from working. The last thing he heard before his vision went completely black was Nat somewhere close by, “What the hell happened here?”

xXxXxXx

Natasha had been searching through the control centre, scouring for any footage they hadn’t managed to completely destroy before abandoning the base, when she heard it. An explosion, that rocked the ground she was standing on.

Tapping her comm, she moved out to the corridor to locate the source of the noise, “Anyone care to explain the explosion?”

“Not from the armouries,” Sam responded.

“Or from the offices” Clint backed up.

“Do we think they have operatives left behind we didn’t spot?” Bucky questioned.

Steve hummed his disapproval, “Unlikely, I think at least one of us would have spotted a sign of that. Stark did it come from you in the lab?”

The comms remained silent as Natasha found herself following the trails of smoke down another corridor.

“Stark? Not the time to be distracted man” Sam prompted.

Natasha froze when she came across what was left of the labs. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand to her comm again. “I don’t think Stark is in a position to reply right now. Looks like the explosion originated from the lab.”

A series of “on our ways” sounded as Natasha started to step over piles of rubble.

Surveying the damage in the room she couldn’t stop herself from asking “What the hell happened here?”

Analysing the rubble and chaos around her, she heard the footsteps of the others approaching.

“Holy shit” Bucky exclaimed as he entered what had previously been called a lab.

There were piles of rubble, overturned tables and small fires everywhere. Natasha had seen worse in the field, but considering Tony was most likely in here somewhere not responding, she was worried. Not that she would show it. That had been trained in her from a very young age. To never show ones true emotions.

They quickly spread out searching for Tony.

Natasha froze when she spotted a red and gold boot poking out from under a large pile of concrete.

“Guys, over here.”

The others moved to stand around her, inspecting the pile. Bucky and Steve shared a look before starting to shift the debris sitting on top of Tony. Clint, Sam and herself helped with the smaller pieces or worked as pairs to move heavier items, but the bulk of the excavation was done by the supersoldiers.

It couldn’t have taken more than 15 minutes, before the full Iron Man suit was visible once more. Tony’s face was uncovered and she was shocked to see the blood running down the side of his face. It looked like he had been knocked out by the blast and was likely going to wake with one hell of a concussion.

Sam was kneeling and giving Tony a quick once over before the team retreated back to the quinjet.

As Bucky and Steve moved out carrying Tony, Natasha paused to survey the lab ruins once more before following after them.

She couldn’t shake the feeling she was forgetting something, but she was struggling to think clearly. Despite her tries, she kept picturing Tony’s lax features when they had moved the final piece of rubble from atop his body.

Entering the quinjet, the tension was thick.

They hadn’t been expecting any injuries today. It was supposed to be a quick mission.

Tony had been placed lying down across one of the benches, while the rest, barring Clint who was piloting, sat opposite him.

Nobody wanted to break the silence on the way back, and before they knew it Clint was announcing that they were 2 minutes from touchdown. Natasha had been in touch with Helen Cho during the journey back, so her and her team would be waiting for them.

As soon as they landed Helens team swarmed Tony and quickly moved him to one of the waiting gurneys. They disappeared in a rush heading to the medbay.

Clint was waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, “What’s up Nat? Stark has survived worse than this.”

Rolling her eyes, she shrugged. “I know. I’m not sure what’s up. I feel like I’ve forgotten something, but I can’t place what it might be.”

He gave her a funny look, “I have the exact same feeling. Have done since we found Stark. I figured its probably just because we left without gathering all the intel.”

“I suppose, but it doesn’t feel like that.”

Shrugging he turned to hold the door to the medbay open for her. Stepping inside the waiting area, Natasha could read a similar unease on the face of the others. Whatever they had forgotten, it must be on all their minds.

She distracted herself by observing those in the waiting room. There was the team who had come back from the mission all looking serious, Happy was standing in the corner watching the door and Pepper was sitting in a seat staring at her hands. She could see Pepper glancing around the room every so often, looking for someone.

Natasha froze.

The only other person that Pepper would be expecting to be in this room, would be Peter. But that can’t be right. Because the last time she saw Peter they were stepping out off the quinjet when they arrived at the Hydra base. And he definitely wasn’t on the quinjet on the way back.

Standing suddenly she announced “Team meeting on the quinjet,” at the look the other shot her way she demanded “Now!”

“Is this really the best timing Nat?” Steve questioned.

Nat shot him a glare, trying to convey the importance of the request. “Yes Cap. Quinjet. Now.”

With that she stormed out to the quinjet, confident that the others would follow. She could hear the others behind her, running to catch up with her pace, but she didn’t pause until she was in the pilots seat. Glancing back to see the 4 men in the aircraft she shut the doors and took off.

“Nat! What are you doing?” Bucky questioned. “Cho isn’t done with Tony yet, whatever it is can wait.”

The others began to pipe up their agreement.

“Peter.” The one whispered word from her had them all silent. “We forgot about Peter.” Turning to face them her voice cracked, “we left him behind buried under God knows what.”

Sam sat heavily, “Oh God.”

Steve looked green, as he leant against the wall.

“What’s the plan?” Clint asked stepping forward.

Taking a shaky breath Nat spoke, “We go, and we find him. Quinjet should have us there in about 20 minutes. We know he would have been in the lab when the explosion went off, so we go and we find out where he is and bring him back.”

The men all nodded gravely, preparing for the rescue mission.

xXxXxXx

When Peter next woke, he was still trapped under the rubble. This time he heard no heartbeats around him. Straining his ears for any sounds, he could hear the thrusters of the quinjet in the distance. It sounded like it was leaving.

Why would they leave without him?

Oh no, did they think he had died? Did they forget about him?

Either way it looked like Peter would have to get himself out of this. Alone. Again.

Taking as deep a breath as he could from where he was currently buried, he braced himself to start pushing the concrete off himself.

It hurt.

His arms, his back and his legs were being crushed under the weight. He let loose a yell as he made it to his feet. Pulling strength he didn’t know he had, he shoved the rubble over to the side.

Once he was free, he dropped onto a slab to his right. Sitting down heavily, he breathed with his head in his hands. The skin of his chest was burning with each breath. Surveying the ruined lab around him, he could see where the dust had been disrupted by the others getting Mr Stark out.

It was the proof that they had been here and saved Mr Stark. And for whatever reason, they then chose to leave without him. He felt a lump form in his throat at the thought of being left behind in the enemy base. Regardless of whether it was abandoned or not.

As the first tear slipped down his cheek, he figured that Mr Stark was right. He’s not ready to be an Avenger. He can’t deal with this. As a sob burst from him, he just wanted to be back home hanging out with Ned and MJ. Arguing over which movie to watch or what Lego set they should buy next.

But instead he was sitting by himself, crying, in the ruins of a lab in an abandoned Hydra base.

His sobs overwhelmed him for some time before he managed to force himself to pull it together. If the others were going to leave him behind, he would need to save himself. He glanced down quickly, before looking away. The front of his suit had been damaged in the explosion and his skin was burnt. He could see blood trailing down various places, but it made him feel woozy. Squeezing his eyes shut he forced himself to move ignore the pain for now. He had to get out first.

Checking the pockets of his suit, he cursed when he remembered leaving his phone on the quinjet earlier. That would have come in handy now.

Standing on shaky legs he slowly made his way through the base till he could see the sun getting low in the sky.

He remembered from the plans that the base was roughly 40 miles west from the nearest town. So keeping the sun behind him, he started walking through the surrounding wilderness. In his current state, it would take him a while to reach the town. But hopefully by tomorrow, he would have access to a phone and he would be able to phone someone for help. Maybe Ned would have an answer as to how best get home.

His muscles were still shaking from pain, the overexertion earlier or lack of food he wasn’t sure. But the combination was making him clumsy and tired. He kept tripping over his own feet and the energy required to stand again each time was increasing. All he could think about was sleeping but given the circumstances Peter wasn’t convinced he would wake again if he did.

He couldn’t have been walking for more than 15 minutes when he heard the sound of an engine approaching. He was still too far out from civilisation for someone to have found him, so his thoughts turned to Hydra returning to their base.

His spider sense had been alerting him of danger since he had awoken under the rubble so that didn’t help him. Glancing around he figured his best option would be to hide in some of the trees surrounding him until whoever it was left. He wasn’t in any condition to run and he certainly wouldn’t be able to fight them off.

Approaching a dense area of trees, Peter took a deep breath before beginning the slow, agonising process of pulling himself up one of the taller trees. From the ground the branches and leaves overlapped enough that he would be hidden from view if he rested in close to the trunk.

Biting his bottom lip to keep his cries to a minimum, he made it to a sturdy branch just as the sound of a plane landing sounded somewhere nearby. He settled on the branch resting his back against the trunk, gazing out through the trees for any signs of the newcomers.

Running his shaking fingers through his hair, he leant back closing his eyes.

He could afford to rest for just a minute.

xXxXxXx

The tension in the quinjet was stifling as Natasha landed in the same spot they had been only a couple of hours earlier.

Before the engines had even cut off the 5 of them were running out towards the remains of the lab. Bucky and Steve ran ahead of the others and were already calling Peters name before they entered what was left of the room. Their shouts cut off abruptly as they went through the doorway.

Natasha arrived at the same time as Same and Clint, all three freezing alongside the supersoldiers.

There was blood splattered around the lab. Blood that had not been there earlier. There was a pool of it from where it appeared Peter had been trapped. Not more than 5 metres from where they had rescued Tony. From the bloody piles of concrete surrounding the puddle on the floor, it looked like Peter had lifted it himself.

Natasha pulled her wide eyes away from the scene in front of her to take in the rest of the room.

“He’s just a kid..” Clint choked out from beside her.

That one sentence seemed to snap the others out of their daze.

“We’re going to find him" Steve announced turning to face the team. “He’s young but he’s strong. Where would he go once he got out of the rubble?”

Bucky scoffed “I'd say the quinjet to go home but we abandoned him here.” The others all winced at his words. Knowing he was right.

Natasha wondered how long it took Peter to realise he was alone here. Did he get out of the rubble and head to a qujnjet to find it wasn’t there waiting for him? Or had he been awake under the rubble unable to call for help and heard the team leaving willingly without him?

She shuddered at the thought.

“He’s smart. Got brains to rival Starks.” The others turned to watch her as she thought outloud. “he was at the planning meeting when we discussed the bases location. Closest town is 40 miles west from here. My bet is he started heading that direction.”

Sam spluttered “40 miles?! The kid is hurt, looking at the blood loss he is not going to make it 40 miles.”

“No, its not likely he would. But what options would he have? Stay in the enemy camp injured and abandoned by his team,” they all winced at the harshness of her words, “or at least try to go get help himself? Given he never contacted us before he dug himself out, I'm going to bet that the blast knocked out his communications. He will be looking for a phone and going west is his best bet. He would know that.”

Nobody argued. As much as Natasha didn’t want to think it, the 17 year old walking 40 miles in the forest injured was currently the best outcome they could hope for.

Turning on her heal she looked back and forth up the corridor deciding which way to go. Given how injured he was, she found it hard to believe he could have walked the way they had entered without leaving any blood trails behind. So she set out in the opposite direction. Heading towards a back entrance.

The others were close behind her before Steve suddenly grabbed her shoulder pointing down a branching off corridor.

“This way.” He took off running, with the others straining to keep up with him. He stopped beside a door that had a blood smear on the wall beside it.

Bloody handprints coated the door like something from a budget horror movie.

Exiting the building they found themselves facing a scattered forest with no obvious path. The sun was beginning to set behind them and if they didn’t find Peter soon it might be too late.

Turning so the setting sun was behind them Cap took charge. “OK, keep comms open and spread out. We know he’s heading west and that he’s injured. Its unlikely he could get far. If you find something shout.”

Nodding their assent, the group took off.

It didn’t take long for Natasha to find a trail. Tapping her comm she let the others know, “I've found what looks like a blood trail. Looks like he’s struggling and been resting against the trees.”

“I'll come join you,” Sam called through his comms.

Its not often Natasha found herself thanking her red room training, but the skills with hunting prey were definitely coming in handy. She was running while following the broken branches and blood smears on rocks and trees until it suddenly ended.

Pausing next to a tree she eyes her surroundings warily. “I’ve followed his track as far as I can but it just ends"

“Are you sure? Maybe be doubled back?” Clint questioned.

“No, I would have seen signs of that. Its like he has vanished into thin air.” Glancing around again her eyes settled on the tree to her right, “unless...” her eyes tracked the subtle blood smears that went up the length of the trunk before disappearing amongst the branches.

“Unless what Nat?” Cap ordered. He was back into a mission focused mood.

The sound of footsteps behind here snapped Natasha’s attention, raising a knife as he spun to face a worried looking Sam. “same team, remember?”

“Sure,” she nodded her head towards the tree. “you got your wings on you?”

He reclined his head studying the branches. It wouldn’t give him a lot of space to move but it was still the best way to get Peter down if he was up there. He opened his mouth to respond before a pained whimper filtered down from the tree.

Sam turned to lock eyes with Natasha. Natasha nodded to Sam, giving him the go ahead to deploy his wings and head up.

“Peter,” Natasha spoke softly knowing that he would hear her, “Sam is going to come up and help you get down ok? We need to get you back to the compound and the medbay. Tony will have a fit if he doesn’t see you there when he wakes up.”

The others had appeared behind her as she was speaking but were all silent. Eyes all fixed on the branches were Sam had disappeared a minute earlier.

Sam spoke quietly through the comms “I’m going to head straight to the quinjet guys. Get there as soon as you can.”

Natasha spotted Sam heading in that direction with Peter hanging limply from his arms, before she took off running alongside the others back to the plane.

Breathing heavily, they were all aboard and taking off 5 minutes later. Clint had gone straight to the pilots chair to set them on course back to the compound.

Natasha froze when she spotted Peter laying across the benches that Stark had been on only hours earlier. He looked so small and young.

The front of his suit had been shredded with patches of bleeding and burnt skin poking through from the many holes littering his torso. He was covered in dust and sweat, and his eyes were scrunched from pain. Unlike Stark who had had the benefit of unconsciousness, Peter was unfailingly awake throughout the flight. His metabolism burned through any of the painkillers they had on board so wouldn’t help him and the slightest of movements were causing him to cry out in pain.

Natasha settled herself on the ground near Peters head and ran her hands through his hair, the same way she has witnessed Tony do countless times before when Peter would fall asleep beside him during team movie nights, her other hand came up to wipe some of the tear tracks from Peters cheeks, and with each new tear she felt her heart breaking.

As much as Peter was awake his eyes had a glaze to them that showed how much he was struggling to focus. Natasha just continued to speak softly to him, assuring him that he would be ok.

Just like with Tony a med team swarmed them as soon as they landed to move Peter over to a gurney and take him inside. She found herself gripping Clint’s hand when Peter cried out as they moved him. Peter was quickly wheeled out of sight and the team all paused to look at each other. Taking a deep breath, they slowly trekked back inside to the waiting room once more. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long till they heard an update.

xXxXxXx

Pain.

Peter didn’t know where he was or who he was with. But he felt pain.

A horrible burning pain, that stabbed at him when he breathed. Or when he moved.

He had been praying for the relief of unconsciousness to hit him, but he was never lucky enough. Each time he got close and thought the cool darkness was going to overtake him the pain would ease enough for him to stay awake.

So he is rightly confused when the next time he breathes, he feels no pain. He’s uncomfortable and so very tired, but the pain has eased.

He doesn’t remember falling asleep but he feels like he is floating on a cloud. His mind is a little fuzzy.

Maybe this is what dying feels like?

If it is, Peter doesn’t think that its that bad. Its calming. Nice. Reminds him of home.

Finally relaxing and letting his tiredness overtake him, he drifts off into a dreamless sleep.

When Peter next awakes, he is more aware of his surroundings. He can hear the beeping and whirring of the machines around him, and recognises the very distinctive smell of the compounds medbay.

He freezes.

That can’t be right. He can’t be in the medbay because the Avengers left him. He shouldn’t be here. _They don’t want him here._

Opening his eyes, he sees he is alone in a familiar room. Mr Stark is always telling him he is here far too often, but still insisted on making sure Peter had his own private room in the medbay for his frequent visits. As much as the room is familiar, he is rarely alone in here. Mr Stark or May always tend to be there to keep him company.

Before his thoughts can begin to spiral familiar voices demand his attention from outside his room. Glancing towards the door he can identify Mr Starks voice and he sounds furious.

“You left him in a fucking Hydra base by himself?! He’s only 17! How could you?! How could-"

“Tony!” that sounded like Pepper. “you can yell later but right now you need to stay calm. You are injured.” As Mr Stark began to interrupt Pepper continued “If you won’t listen to my advice then I'll go grab Dr Cho and she can prescribe complete bed rest.”

Peter could picture the look of betrayal on Mr Starks face at Peppers threat. Although he began to worry about what injuries his mentor had suffered.

“We are so sorry Tony" that sounded like Natasha, but Peter had never heard her sound so sad. If it was anyone else, he would have said they sounded close to tears. “We completely forgot. I know you don’t want excuses and I’m not trying to give you some, but it’s the first time he has been out with us all and we saw you lying unconscious and our first thoughts were to get you back here and checked out. The moment we realised, we went back to get him.”

“ _Hours_ later,” Mr Stark hissed at her. “my kid was there hurt, alone and probably scared because _you_ left him behind.” A bang echoed through the corridor like someone had punched a wall. “we left him behind.” His mentor choked out the words.

Peter froze.

Glancing down at himself, he slowly took the IV out of his arm causing him to wince. He hated needles.

Slowly moving his legs over the side of the bed he shakily got to his feet. Shuffling towards the door, he could hear his mentors choked off sobs and Pepper whispering soothing words to him. There were other voices in the corridor that sounded like the team all whispering in hushed voices, they all sounded sad.

As his palm came to rest on the door handle, he took a deep breath preparing himself for whatever was waiting outside.

As his door opened, the voices all stopped. When he stepped into the corridor, you could have heard a pin drop.

Peter was staring intently at his socked feet, wondering idly if he should have looked for shoes to put on before leaving his room, when Mr Starks choked breath caught his attention. He slowly lifted his gaze to look at his mentor when felt his own breath catch.

Mr Stark looked awful. He was in a wheelchair with an arm in a cast and bruises all along the left-hand side of his face.

Forgetting about everything for a minute Peter started forward, “Oh my God, Mr Stark, are you ok?” he paused catching the pain in Mr Starks eyes “wait, should you even be out of bed?”

That seemed to cause his mentor to let out in involuntary laugh. “you are certainly one to talk underoos.”

“what?”

“You should be in bed Spider-baby. Not going for walkies in your pj’s.” His mentor smirked trying to lighten the mood, but Peter could still see something off in his eyes. Something that was on the tip of his tongue. Then it hit him.

Guilt.

As Peters mind analysed that, he glanced up at the rest of the team who were staying back from the pair’s interactions. They seemed to be equal parts overjoyed that he was up and walking but they also looked like they were going to drown in guilt if he let them.

When the team saw Peter watching them, they seemed to freeze. Natasha stepped forward with red rimmed eyes, and her hands up in a gesture showing she meant no harm, “We are so sorry Peter. You have no idea how much we wish we could go back and change what happened, but we can’t. I just really hope you can somehow manage to forgive us for what we did.”

Peter took a minute to look over the team that had forgotten him. Steve was blinking back tears and Bucky kept clenching and unclenching his fist. Sam could barely look at him, and Clint was shaking.

His aunt May had always told him that he wore his heart on his sleeve. That one of his biggest flaws was also one of the things she admired most. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to stay mad at his team.

As much as he may hate it, it was an accident.

He smiled at the team, “It’s fine, I get it. I forgive you.” He could feel the relief that flooded that the corridor.

He watched as his mentor was pushed closer to him by Pepper, “You have a better heart than me kid, now come on,” he gestured for Peter to go back into his room, “time to get back into bed before Cho catches you.”

Peter smiled once more to the team before heading back inside to his bed. Sliding back onto the mattress, he watched as Mr Stark shakily moved himself from the wheelchair to the armchair by the bed. Once his mentor had gotten himself settled, he leant forward to grab Peters hand.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you Pete,” Mr Stark raised his hand to stop him from interrupting, “I told you not to touch things in the lab and then I got ahead of myself and caused an explosion. That hurt you, and _don’t_ tell me it didn’t hurt you because I know it did, and I’m sorry you had to go through that alone. I have got so many updates ready for your suit that your comms will be able to work from the bottom of the Atlantic or in the middle of a volcano – Not that you are ever going to get yourself into any of those situations, but I like covering all bases.” He sent a smirk to Peter, but the way he was clutching his hand and rubbing soothing circles with his thumb, was showing Peter exactly how worried his mentor had been.

“I don’t blame you Mr Stark, I was worried about you. And yeah, I was scared when I heard the quinjet leaving while I was still trapped but they came back. And you are here with me now, so I’ll be ok.” He paused to smile at his mentor, “We’ll both be ok.”

His mentor gave him a soft smile and lent forward to plant a kiss on Peters knuckles. “Yeah, kid. We’ll be ok.”


End file.
